There has been huge controversy in the US over the last decade as states have introduced electronic voting machines. Campaign groups have alleged that these machines make mistakes, but voters have no way to check their ballot has been correctly recorded. Now states are shifting back towards paper trails, including the ground zero for voting problems – Florida.
What lessons can we learn to ensure that consumers trust information in a Fair Tracing system?
The Economist recently featured a thought-provoking look at the costs and benefits of fair trade and food miles, both issues of central concern to the Fair Tracing project:
The standard economic argument against Fairtrade goes like this: the low price of commodities such as coffee is due to overproduction, and ought to be a signal to producers to switch to growing other crops. Paying a guaranteed Fairtrade premium—in effect, a subsidy—both prevents this signal from getting through and, by raising the average price paid for coffee, encourages more producers to enter the market. This then drives down the price of non-Fairtrade coffee even further, making non-Fairtrade farmers poorer. Fairtrade does not address the basic problem, argues Tim Harford, author of “The Undercover Economist” (2005), which is that too much coffee is being produced in the first place. Instead, it could even encourage more production…
But perhaps the most cogent objection to Fairtrade is that it is an inefficient way to get money to poor producers. Retailers add their own enormous mark-ups to Fairtrade products and mislead consumers into thinking that all of the premium they are paying is passed on. Mr Harford calculates that only 10% of the premium paid for Fairtrade coffee in a coffee bar trickles down to the producer. Fairtrade coffee, like the organic produce sold in supermarkets, is used by retailers as a means of identifying price-insensitive consumers who will pay more, he says.
What do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment…
The Japanese government is investigating adding basic tags to food products to allow consumers to check their origin. The Commission was originally set up after an outbreak of “mad cow” disease, and sees tagging as a way to give consumers the ability to check food safety for themselves. Consumers seem to prefer tagged products — good news for our project!
